


Quiet

by Sinna



Category: Newsies (1992), Newsies - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-22
Updated: 2016-12-22
Packaged: 2018-09-11 05:26:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,516
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8955952
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sinna/pseuds/Sinna
Summary: "He hadn't always been quiet."Esther Jacobs watches her eldest son growing up.





	

**Author's Note:**

> A present for randomness-1964 as part of the newsiesstocking winter wishlist on tumblr. Go check the group out and maybe grant a few wishes :)

He hadn’t always been quiet.

Esther Jacobs remembered a time when her eldest son had been the loudest boy on the block. From the moment he learned to speak, it seemed he never stopped. He and Sarah wound themselves up into loud disagreements more often than not, and Esther quickly learned that David would inevitably protest if their punishments weren’t equal, whether he was being punished more or less.

When she sent him off to school, she fully expected the letters home, complaining of David’s outspokenness and stubbornness.  

What she didn’t expect was for the letters to stop coming. At first, she assumed that he was hiding them from her. It wasn’t unexpected. Mayer assured her that he’d done the same when he was a boy, to avoid punishment. While David had always been the type to accept the consequences of his actions, it seemed plausible enough.

When further questioning of her son got her nowhere, Esther went to visit the school. To her surprise, the teacher merely confirmed what David had already told her: he was no longer getting into trouble.

“David’s a quiet enough boy,” the woman said. “A bit troublesome at first, I admit, but a little discipline straightened him right out.”

It was the first time anyone had ever referred to David as quiet.

Esther returned home and took a good look at her son that evening. He was quietly working on whatever at-home assignment the teacher had given him, tracing letters over and over on a piece of paper.

“How was your day at school, David?” she asked him.

“It was fine,” he mumbled, not looking up.

“What are you working on?”

“Writing my letters.”

Esther waited for some elaboration, some long story about what he was learning, but it never came.

She watched him closely for the rest of the night, realizing for the first time that something had changed.

Sarah had changed, too. Where she’d once begged her brother to play with her, she now hissed anytime he came too near and insisted that he couldn’t play with her. He’d sharply retort that he didn’t want to play with her stupid girl toys anyway.

Esther wondered when her children had changed so much, and how she’d missed it.

\--

When Les was born, David began talking again. Esther off-handedly mentioned that Les would learn to talk more quickly if they talked to him like a person, rather than a pet. David seemed to take this as a solemn duty.

Esther would listen in from the kitchen as she cooked dinner, smiling as he seriously addressed his little brother, pausing every so often as if Les might suddenly gain the ability to reply to him.

In a soft voice, he told his little brother everything that came to mind. But even then, he was careful not to talk very much or very loudly when he knew anyone else was listening. And she noticed that he carefully avoided the subject of school. She didn’t have to be educated to guess what that meant.

For a while, Esther hoped that Les would help David regain his voice. But as Les learned to talk, David talked less and less, falling back into the habit of listening quietly.

By the time Les was five, and about to go to school, David was quiet again.

Esther looked around at her family. Mayer, who worked ever-longer hours and was exhausted even when he was home. Sarah, who’d been pulled from school at thirteen to help make ends meet. David, who more often than not seemed lost in his own head. And Les, the child with too much energy for the rest of them.

And then she looked at herself. When had she become so tired? When had she lost the time and the energy to do anything besides work and basic household chores? She’d been promising Sarah a new skirt for ages. She really had to get on that.

\--

David rarely mentioned any friends from school, and he’d certainly never brought any home. When he showed up after his first day selling newspapers with a boy he introduced as selling partner and friend, Esther’s immediate fear was that the boy was just trying to take advantage of him and get a free meal.

But the way David smiled at this “Jack” made her push that fear aside. As the night wore on, Jack continued to surprise her. He fit into their dinner table like he belonged there, leaning slightly towards David as he told outlandish stories of his life selling newspapers.

And David… David was part of the conversation, interjecting to correct some of Jack’s more far-fetched claims, or add details to the more realistic ones. Esther hadn’t heard him talk this much in a long time. He’d gone nearly silent after Mayer’s injury.

David wasn’t the only one affected by Jack. Esther immediately caught him making eyes at her daughter, and the way Sarah blushed in response.

Even Les seemed to love Jack, regaling the family with stories of his new hero’s brave adventures.

She’d been trying to find something good in Mayer’s injury for weeks now. Perhaps it was in front of her now. For the first time in years, it felt like she had her family back.

\--

It felt like she watched her son age years over the course of the strike. Every night, the young man who came home was different from the boy who had left her house that morning. David was proud, he was hopeful, he was angry, he was stubborn, but he was always so alive. Over the years, Esther had often felt like David was locked inside his own head. If he had been, Jack had found the key to let him out.

But of course things were never that easy.

Denton and Jack’s betrayals worried her. She could see David retreating into his mind again. But whatever spark Jack had lit inside him was far from burnt out.

\--

A few nights later, she heard hushed voices out on the fire escape.

“What if this doesn’t work?” That was David.

“C’mon, Dave, have a little faith.”

The fondness in Jack’s voice belied the betrayal David had come home ranting about two nights ago.

“We have to try, David.”

Esther was somewhat surprised to hear Sarah out with the boys, although perhaps she shouldn’t have been. In hindsight, Sarah’s interest in the strike and insistence on attending the newsboys’ rally had probably been motivated far more by her desire to be involved than any feelings she might have for Jack.

As she heard the voices of her children retreating, Esther reached for the curtain, debating calling out to them and begging them to let her in on their plans.

A hand on hers stopped her.

“Leave them be,” Mayer told her quietly.

“I worry about them,” Esther admitted.

“So do I,” Mayer said. “But they’re growing up. They need to do this on their own.”

There was a long silence as they both considered the children they had raised.

“I never thought I’d see David so confident in himself,” Esther said quietly, a small smile making its way to her lips.

“He just needed someone to believe in him,” Mayer observed.

“Weren’t we enough?”

Esther wiped her eyes, willing the tears gathering there not to fall.

“We’re his parents,” Mayer said. “He thought we only did because we had to.”

“Children can be so foolish.”

Settling back into bed, Esther tried to sleep and waited for her children to come home.

\--

“Stop treating me like a child, Momma,” David whined as she straightened his tie.

“Oh hush,” she said. “As if I’d let any son of mine get on a train to the other side of the country looking like a scoundrel.” She looked at her son’s travelling companion. “You too, Jack. Come here.”

She brushed a few imaginary specks of dirt from Jack’s broad shoulders and straightened his hat out of the rakish angle he preferred. Jack did his best to look anything less than delighted at the attention.

“We’ll miss our train if you don’t stop fussing,” David pointed out.

“If your sister was here,” Esther began.

“I’d have two people fussing over me,” David finished. “Luckily for us all, she’s home with Ethan and the baby.”

Suddenly, David’s calm mask cracked, and he hugged Esther tightly.

“Tell them I said goodbye,” he said. “And that I love them.”

“I will,” Esther promised.

“The conductor’s yelling last call!” Les yelled, panting as he ran up to them. “Come on you two!”

David ruffled his younger brother’s hair, although with some difficulty seeing as Les was now taller than him.

Esther hugged her youngest for the third time that day.

“You take care of my baby,” she said to Jack and David.

“Yes ma’am,” Jack agreed.

“Of course, Momma,” David said.

“I’m not a baby,” Les insisted. “Now come on!”

The three ran towards the train, making it through the doors just in time.

Esther watched from the platform until the train was just a speck in the distance.


End file.
